Thursday, July 19, 2012

News Links, July 20, 2012

## Global Ponzi meltdown/House of Cards ##UAE brokerages under threat as volumes fall further
"Stockbrokers in the UAE fear many more securities firms are likely to close their doors in the second half of the year as trading volumes return to pre-rally levels."

Vietnam's export industry facing difficulties
"Vietnam's export industry is currently facing a slew of problems like a shrinking market base, price reduction and material shortage, according to delegates at a conference held in Ho Chi Minh City on Tuesday."

## Airline Death Spiral ##Korean Air posts loss on weak cargo, currency
"Korean Air Line Co. reported a second quarter loss on Thursday as the global economic slowdown hurt its cargo business and a decline in the local currency made servicing its foreign debt more expensive."

Mass anti-austerity protests on Spanish streets
"Hundreds of thousands of Spaniards marched against the centre-right government's latest austerity measures on Thursday evening, following more than a week of demonstrations across the country."

"Natural gas prices in the US have been so low for so long that producers are running into trouble. While up 46% from the April low, the recent price of $2.79/MMBtu at the Henry Hub is still too low to drill economically. Losses out into the horizon. Plunging drilling activity. Rig count down 41% from last July, at the lowest level since August 1999. A nightmare for producers. And some will go out of business."

"ESI-Africa says that Eskom expected demand of about 36,258 MW, the highest so far this winter, and urged its customers to switch off all non-essential electrical appliances during the peak hours as the available supply was only 36,580 MW including open cycle gas turbines."

Employees' pension funds fall short by over 1 tril. yen in reserves
"The country's 576 employees' pension funds sustained a combined shortfall of 1.11 trillion yen in reserves set aside for their public pension liabilities as of last March, up 480 billion yen from a year earlier, according to welfare ministry data presented to the ruling party on Thursday."

"Even as the latest doubts over accounting at a Chinese company sent investors fleeing from its shares, investors who specialize in ferreting out dodgy businesses say that a crackdown by Beijing is making their work more difficult and in some cases dangerous."

## UK ##Cameron sees no end to UK austerity: report
"British Prime Minister David Cameron said on Thursday that he cannot see an end to the government's austerity program while Britain tackles its huge budget deficit amid deteriorating economic conditions."